Tag Archives: afi

It seems like just yesterday I was standing outside 924 Gilman Street with AFI/Blaqk Audio’s Davey Havok as he swooned over a blue-haired girl who had smiled at him, grabbing my arm to contain his excitement. Yet it also feels like several lifetimes ago. I suppose it’s hard to believe nowadays that he’d be nervous in the presence of beautiful women but, as he wrote here and here, they liked to give him grief and his apprehension was understandable.

Not long after that episode, we were in his tiny studio apartment, giggling about one of the many racy fan letters AFI received after MRR ran their first interview (issue 137). We didn’t foresee AFI’s endurance and its evergrowing legion of devoted fans. Heck, after our lives diverged sometime in the late ’90s, I had no idea they had outgrown small punk rock shows until I saw them perform again in 2003 during their Sing the Sorrows tour.

I had arrived in London with my new travel buddy Domo-Kun to conduct research for the novel I was working on at the time. It involved a walking tour that encompassed London’s historic punk and rock’n’roll venues, listening to John Peel’s show on the radio (what a thrill!), a bus tour of England’s mystical sights (Stonehenge, Glastonbury, King Arthuer’s grave, Avebury), and a walk-through of the London Astoria. One day I thumbed through Time Out and learned that not only were Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and Nick Lowe playing separate sold-out shows the next evening, so was AFI.

AFI crowd outside London Forum (June 6, 2003) | Fujifilm FinePix A101

On a whim, I headed over to the Forum the next afternoon in hopes of catching the guys once they were done with soundcheck. To my surprise, despite doors opening at 7pm, at 4:30pm there was already a long line of people waiting to get in. In addition, dozens of kids were hanging out by the side of the venue, which was apparently where the band’s dressing room overlooked.

Though I thought there was little chance the band would venture into this mob scene, I joined them and met fans from London, elsewhere in England, and even Europe. They were quite competitive with each other, detailing how long they’d been listening to the band, how many times they’d seen and met them, etc. Several times they’d rally together and chant one of the guy’s names, hoping for a response. Occasionally Dave, Jade, Adam, or Hunter would stick his head out the window and the kids would cheer. It was quite exciting, actually, and all that unbridled enthusiasm swept me back to my very first concert (Lollapalooza #1, with Siouxsie & the Banshees, NIN, Henry Rollins, Ice T, and Jane’s Addiction). At one point Dave affixed a small basket to a rope, filled it with vegan cookies, and then lowered it into the crowd, much to everyone’s delight.

Hunter, the new member of AFI at the time, came out and was immediately mobbed by autograph and photo seekers. I’d never met him before but managed to fight through the crowd and ask him to tell the others that I was in town. He obliged and eventually Dave hung out the window (cue an explosion of cheers) to look for me.

Their show turned out to be a bonafide concert, complete with an enormous stage, dazzling light show, and 2100 screaming, pulsing fans. I was awestruck, both by the audience’s fervor and the band’s performance. Their stage presence had always been energetic and spirited but it seemed to have multiplied tenfold since I last saw them a good five years prior. I recall getting goosebumps and a touch misty-eyed as I watched them work the stage and the crowd. The entire venue shook underfoot for the duration of the show. It’s times like this that I regret not being a better photojournalist, but c’est la vie.

Here’s another installment of Dave’s troubles with women, which appeared in My Letter to the World #8, published December 16, 1993 (click for a larger view). For more literary endeavors by Dave, you might want to check out his debut novel Pop Kids, which comes out today.

Even though February is only two or three days shorter than other months, its end never fails to catch me off guard! I had thought I’d spread out the posting of my old KALX playlists but that requires more planning than I’m prepared to handle right now. So here are my playlists from February 1994 in one gruesome, end-of-the-month glob. The first show had me tag-teaming with Jesse Luscious and it was a bit of a hot mess, but that’s what you’d expect pairing hardcore with easy listening.

Here’s also another Davey Havok essay (click for larger view; the first one appears here), written when he was 18. I wasn’t going to post one for a while but noticed that My Letter to the World #9 was published on February 23, 1994. It seemed fitting to include in this little musical time capsule. Enjoy!

AFI/Blaqk Audio frontman Davey Havok is set to release his debut novel Pop Kids on April 2. According to the website, it’s about a 17-year-old guy who’s a “pop-culture-obsessed, pseudo-vegetarian, atheist pyromaniac trapped within a rural northern Californian town.” Although I haven’t paid close attention to his various projects since the late 1990s, I’m pretty intrigued by this one.

I first met Dave shortly after the start of UC Berkeley’s fall 1993 semester. I’m not completely certain, but it may have been at a 924 Gilman St. show. He had a baby mohawk, a skateboard, and a crisp black leather jacket with the blue Germs circle neatly painted on the back of it. I was hyper, pushy, and in-your-face (not much has changed!); he was super-friendly with a ready smile. Somehow we became friends, yet I never called him Davey.

Davey Havok & Tiger Lily circa 1994; photographer unknown

Unfortunately, my memory’s pretty spotty and we weren’t the type to get into trouble so I don’t have any scandalous stories to share. We were just good kids in the East Bay punk scene. At that time, I lived on the top floor of a three-story house. Since cell phones hadn’t become commonplace yet, Dave would either have to yell up or throw rocks at my window if he wanted to visit. I’d help him put up and hand out flyers for AFI shows (his personable nature no doubt helped boost his fledgling band’s fanbase). I’d play his band’s singles fairly frequently on my KALX radio show (starting with this one). He’d school me on slang from his hometown, none of which I remember. He got his first tattoo (Gogo the Dodo, of all things) shortly after I got mine (topless Winnie the Pooh, no better). Ditto with the lip piercing.

Dave also wrote a series of personal essays for my zine My Letter to the World. All of them were about his troubles with girls—but not in the way you’d think. The first appeared in issue 7, published on October 29, 1993 (click for a larger view):

My Letter to the World #7

“Tongue-Tied” by Davey Havok, My Letter to the World #7

I’m sure Dave no longer writes with the voice of an almost-18-year-old, but it’d be a spectacular feat if he managed to channel it for Pop Kids, considering the protagonist is soon-to-be 18. I guess I’ll just have to pick up a copy and see if I catch a glimpse of that weak pinner kid with a round Hostess Twinkie belly. [2/28/13: I posted another of his essays here. 4/2/13: And another one.]